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Quick Q&A: What is the "rapture" that so many Christians talk about?

Answer: I guess you could say that “the secret rapture” before the return of Jesus Christ is just a theory that does not hold up to what the Bible actually says.

Any teaching of a secret rapture is inconsistent with the Bible. The idea that Christ would somehow “snatch away” believers before His return and before the Great Tribulation cannot be found in the scriptures.

We read that the return of Jesus Christ will come with a shout and with the voice of an archangel and trumpet blasts. Does that sound like a quiet and secret, “Hey, why are all these clothes lying around, and where are all the people?” kind of event?

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 we read, "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."

There is no “secret rapture” before the return of Christ. His return will be very visible—and it will be the time, right at the end of this present age, when the dead will be resurrected and those living in Christ will be “caught up” (I Thessalonians 4:17) to meet the Lord in the air. This Second Coming will be an event experienced worldwide, taking place after the Tribulation, after the seventh trumpet talked about in the book of Revelation has sounded.